IBTM Events

Monday, May 1, 2017

The latest organisation to join the ILEA Global Partner Program is leading global exhibition organiser, ibtm events, part of Reed Travel Exhibitions.

The company has a portfolio of seven events, providing business solutions on five continents, including their flagship annual tradeshow, ibtm world in Barcelona, as well as ibtm china, ibtm latin america, ibtm africa, their innovative one- to-one ‘pod’ format shows ibtm arabia and ibtm america, and AIME (Asia-Pacific Incentives and Meetings Expo), held in conjunction with the Melbourne Convention Bureau in Australia.

“We are delighted to become an ILEA Global Partner,” commented Kerry Prince, ibtm events Portfolio Director, “We have years of experience in organising and producing live events and are always looking for ways to enhance our offer and ensure our events are future fit and delivering exactly what our partners are looking for.”

“Being part of the program will allow us to work even more closely with our partners in the US and the global live events industry, providing valuable opportunities to discuss and debate the latest issues, support existing and future industry professionals as well as providing us with some excellent new business opportunities.”

“We join ILEA at a time when it’s more important than ever for the events industry to demonstrate that it is capable of working together to prosper in the face of new challenges, some of them as yet unknown. We are much better placed to respond to these challenges now than at any other time in our history, as our industry is now robustly underpinned by widespread professionalism and a sound education and training system.”

As we enter 2017, we asked ibtm events for its thoughts on the year ahead. The company recently released its annual ibtm world Trends Watch report, which predicted growth for the global MICE industry in 2017. Authored by Dr Rob Davidson, Managing Director of MICE Knowledge, the report makes forecasts for the industry’s performance in 2017 and analyses the major trends in the global MICE industry for 2016. The report is a concise synthesis of over 20 sources of current data, including surveys with some of the industry’s leading lights.

The research points to a quiet optimism towards global economic performance from most forecasters and predicts that cost per attendee per day, as well as group sizes will increase in almost all world regions. In the US, there is growing expectation that 2017 will bring a change in the balance of power from sellers to buyers, in terms of corporate and contract rate negotiations between hotels and planners and this may well be seen further afield.

Commenting on the report Kerry said: “Post- show analysis from the ibtm events’ global portfolio supports Rob’s findings, with international exhibitor numbers up year- on-year across the portfolio, including most notably up 45% at ibtm china, and increase of 20% at ibtm arabia and an incredible rise of 165% compared to 2015 at ibtm latin america.”

“As a result, more connections were made at ibtm events in 2016 than ever before, with over 100,000 pre-scheduled appointments booked across the events and 2017 gearing up to be a success for the company despite a challenging economic, social and political landscape.”

The company is focused on innovations and enhancements to ensure the continued success of its portfolio, including its one-to- one events, ibtm arabia (7-9 February 2017) and ibtm america (14-16 June 2017).

“In order to ensure that attendees at these two events have the very best and most effective environment for doing business, we created a one-to-one ‘pod’ format which, combined with our bespoke ‘matchmaking’ software, creates a personalised diary of 100% mutually matched pre-scheduled appointments for each attendee,” says Kerry, “This means that time is focused on meeting with people with whom there is a very high chance of doing business.”

“What’s more our ibtm america event is a ‘travelling’ event, taking place in a different destination each year. The idea behind this is that it gives attendees access each year to a completely new pool of exhibitors and Hosted Buyers and also enables them to explore in- depth a different US city so that they really get under the skin of that destination. It’s a format that continues to work very well for us and is extremely popular with our clients.

“Our 2016 edition, in Nashville, TN, was a phenomenal event and we’re looking forward to bringing ibtm america to the Diplomat Resort & Spa in South Florida this June 2017.”